U.S. Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor had the support of 62 percent of those polled, numbers sure to boost her appeal heading into Senate confirmation hearings in two weeks.

Fifty-five percent of poll respondents judged the would-be first Latina Supreme Court judge “about right” on a scale between liberal and conservative extremes.

But her support dropped to 36 percent for Republicans, most of whom said Sotomayor was “more liberal” than they preferred, the Washington Post reported. Half of Republican men said her race and ethnicity would affect her decisions -- and not in a good way.

Despite being hammered by conservative critics for past comments on ethnicity, gender and the law, a majority of those polled said they did not believe her being a woman or a Latina would influence the way Sotomayor would decide cases.